Posts Tagged: god

On Borrowed Tomorrows

Posted September 13, 2015 | Karisa Moore

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”…

The days do not belong to us, they are the Lord’s. How differently do we live with this verse in mind? Would we wake up and  rather than hit the snooze button, or go down the litany of our to do list, or worry, we instead asked, “Lord, what is your will for this day?”  There is freedom in the revelation that the day was never ours in the first place. It is the Lord who provides our daily bread, who builds or tears down, and it is the Lord’s to do with it what he pleases. What is expected of us in each day? That we believe in him! That is enough, and out of our joy everything else falls into place.

Jonathan’s death is shifting my focus from ownership to stewardship. Every time I switch from opening my hands to the Lord being enough today, I sink. Every time! I’m coming to realize that at the heart of grief is the realization that I can’t and He can. If each day is mine then I follow my will for that day (usually into the pit of sorrow), but if I humble myself and allow the Lord to teach me to number my days correctly, then every moment is an opportunity! Jesus corrected the disciples perspective on time, their days, and their position in those days. While the disciples kept jockeying for the right or left throne in the Lord’s kingdom, Jesus showed them that the greatest were the least, that money and power were not equal with holiness, and that God appoints time, not man. When these men accepted and embraced that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, they became instruments of God’s will in every life they encountered. Open prison doors, shaken by heaven. became an opportunity for salvation, not an escape from circumstances! Acts 16:25-34 There is not a single moment that is wasted by God!

But oh how much time we humans waste pretending that we are in mini gods, planning our days and years! We build mansions that are devoid of love. We watch others live fake lives on TV, never really finding out what today was meant to be. We are the most effective when we acknowledge that our tomorrows are borrowed from God almighty. The best plan is for God to teach us to number our days correctly.

Proverbs 19:20 Listen to counsel and accept discipline, That you may be wise the rest of your days. 21Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand.

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God is a god Who Embraces, Get Used to It!

Posted August 14, 2015 | Karisa Moore

Ecclesiastes 3:4 A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance. 5A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. 6A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away. . .

Philippians 3: 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

I am not just a survivor of suicide, I am a survivor of abuse. When you have layer upon layer of trauma quirks are bound to follow. I can give hugs all day to others, but struggle to accept an embrace. At the core is a desire for control. God is a god who embraces! When I began my relationship with Jesus this was a major issue between him and I. It is one thing to invite Jesus into your heart and it is another to allow him to take up residence. When Jesus embraces, I am faced with a God I cannot control. For many years I have squirmed in his arms, not sure I trust his justice, his love, his passion and compassion for me. But lets face it, his character will never fit into my arms. He embraced me from the cross before I was ever born!

When I had my miscarriage, God went ahead of my loss to prepare comfort. Natalie Grant’s new song “Held” had just come out, and I remember thinking what a comfort it would be for those who experience the loss of a child. A month later I miscarried. I listened to that song over and over allowing my heavenly daddy to hold me in a way I had never allowed before. I found out more about his character in those moments and came to see, in this world I will have troubles, but he has overcome the world. This is a season that I must once again settle into. I need to be held by God and his people.

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary has a fabulous take on Lamentations 3:1-10:

To expect unchanging happiness in a changing world, must end in disappointment.

My world keeps changing. The question is, will I shake off what lays in the past and lay ahold of the one who has embraced me. Because God is a god who embraces and he gives us the opportunity to get used to being held.

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Healing to Your Flesh and Refreshment to Your Bones

Posted August 13, 2015 | Karisa Moore

Proverbs 3:3Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4So you will find favor and good successa
in the sight of God and man.

5Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8It will be healing to your fleshb
and refreshmentc to your bones.

As I type the sun is streaming through my window, greeting me with the joy of my heavenly father. For this first year I have felt crushed by my circumstances. My goal of grieving with hope constantly weighed down by my lack of trust in God’s ways. Last night I turned a difficult corner. My sorrow, doubts and fears lay on the altar ready at last to submit to God’s will. He will produce glory from my son’s death. There is no more question mark. I can relax into his purpose because it is no longer at odds with my purpose. I want what he wants, not the other way around. “He is not a tame lion, but he is good.” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) I can trust his goodness even if his ways are not my ways.

I cannot emphasis enough that this has come about through meditating on scripture. The verses that I have been reading since Jonathan’s death establish God’s sovereignty in my circumstances, his foundation of love, his goodness and that his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Romans 8 helped me to determine that I want the Spirit of life to control me, not my sinful nature.

Now it is a matter of walking in the light of his path that he makes straight for me. He will show me where to go, and equip me to get there. Following his ways and leaning not on my own understanding will be healing to my body and refreshment to my bones.

Proverbs 3 My Role and God’s Role

Me

  • remember the love and faithfulness God has shown me
  • meditate upon examples of his character
  • be loving and faithful
  • love God with my whole heart, leaning on my own understanding results in half-hearted attempts
  • acknowledging God in all my ways leaves no room for selfish ambition, no maverick off-roading
  • remember that the results are his not mine
  • respect and honor the Lord’s sovereignty in every situation and see evil as opposing counsel

God

  • gives favor and success with God and man
  • straightens out my path
  • heals my body and refreshes my bones
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Death Touched Butterfly

Posted August 11, 2015 | Karisa Moore

Cocooned, your wings

folded into cramped quarters of

fragile purpose.

Too young–death has touched

you.

ripped your still forming chrysalis

forced your

eyes open to the dust

of humanity. So you hide deep within

safety, questioning the wisdom of

God. Why did he mold you to fly in a world

chained by gravity?

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My GPS is Taking Me to China: God’s Navigating Me to His Perfect Will

Posted August 8, 2015 | Karisa Moore

My GPS was navigating me to China today! My husband and I stood in the middle of downtown Chicago, trying to get to lunch and every street the “navigation” device added streets, had us standing on Michigan when were actually on Grande or highlighted no route at all. I put the electronic map away and asked a doorman how to get to our destination. Five minutes later we arrived.

The Holy Spirit is the ultimate navigation system for my life. But, I don’t always seek my spiritual counselor. I’ve had a lot of voices telling me things about my son’s death, the reasons for it, my role and how to respond. Today I am like the little girl, in front of my husband and I, who sat down on the sidewalk in a toddler tantrum refusing to walk another inch until her desires were met by her parents. I really feel stuck. I keep asking God for directions–and he if he doesn’t answer to my satisfaction I turn to following my own navigation system, which has always been wonky.

Sometimes we are just plain asking and trusting the wrong sources to solve our global positioning issues. We will worship a golden calf if we think it will get us to the promise land quicker, or we whine to go back to Egypt if we think where God is leading us is to fraught with danger and trials. We want the easiest plan from point A to B, and when God takes us through deserts, around buildings 7 times, to the cross, and through loss and brokenness, we cannot accept that His navigation system is accurate.

God isn’t limited by time, space, circumstances, fear or anything else interfering with our human MapQuest. We will get from point A to point B–it may be through a whale or well, but his GPS never fails to make it to its destination. Question is will I follow?

One things for sure, I got my 10,000 steps in today!

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A Conversation with God

Posted August 6, 2015 | Karisa Moore

I want answers. God wants trust.

I feel like a kid asking, “Please explain your plan to me.”

“That is not what you really want.” God gently corrects. “You want Jonathan’s death to mean something, for beauty to spring from the ashes of your heartache and you do not trust that I will give you 100 fold what I have taken from you. Have I not laid out my promises to you through scripture, and in our personal relationship?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I just want my remaining kids to be okay–to help others struggling with depression.”

“Do I not want the same?”

“Yes, but you don’t do things the way I would.”

“Exactly.”

“Why this path, why Jonathan, why this amount of pain? I want answers Lord!”

“No, you want your answers Karisa. Not mine.”

Silence. Can I live with this God whose ways are not my ways?

Isaiah 55:8-9 8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

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I Don’t Need a Diviner of Dreams: I need Jesus

Posted July 13, 2015 | Karisa Moore

Jeremiah 27: 9“But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10“For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish.…

For an entire week I have dreamed about my son and his dad. In my year of grieving I have never dreamed about my ex and have had inconsistent dreams about Jonathan. Dreams are a tough call when it comes to interpretation, some are from God, and some are not. Are these?

As I research dreams in scripture, it is clear that many people have been lead astray by dreamers and interpreter of dreams. I am one of those people. I have had vivid dreams since I was a child. Most of them were night terrors or nightmares. As I got older I searched for answers in dream books. At no time did I think of asking God. In fact my searches took me further and further away from him.

We have all kinds of mediums, psychics, etc. today. I have had my palm read (none of which came true), been tempted by witchcraft (until I felt the depth of evil I was messing with), and been fascinated by dream interpretations. All of these men and women offer us quick fixes to long term problems. They don’t see how our story fits into the big picture, nor how the difficult things we avoid, may be the very things we must, and need to go through to achieve the greater good. They are just like us, men and women trying to make sense of circumstances that at times, feel beyond our control. We need someone who isn’t motivated by selfish desires, who isn’t into “truth telling” for the money, who risks loosing it all to bring us the truth of God. Men like Joseph, Daniel, and Joseph the step-father of Jesus had dreams clearly considered from God. Why is that? Scripture doesn’t say why these men dreamed and interpreted dreams differently than the rest. But, it does say that God was with them, gave them favor, and they gave him the glory.

Who are we seeking for answers? Are they giving God the glory, themselves, or Satan? I don’t need an interpreter of dreams to know that I am to pray for my ex, forgive him, and show compassion towards him and my mind battles with selfish desires–holding on to anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Lord, I ask that you would give me the strength to forgive others as you forgave me. Amen

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The Hypocrisy of People Pleasing: Learning to Write to my Father’s Glory

Posted May 13, 2015 | Karisa Moore

Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

 Hi, my name is Karisa, and I am a recovering people-pleaser. It has been one minute since I drank my last complement. I loved the feedback that I received from a client this morning. “I hired a poet to write a business letter. I’m very smart cookie. She did an awesome job in a short period of time.”

We are constantly getting input on how we are doing from our fellow man, but God’s review has to be the only feedback that counts. This is a serious stumbling block for me. I tend to beat myself up for mistakes, and struggle to have the same response no matter what criticism is received. I get sick to my stomach until I hear back that I’ve done a good job. Therefore, rather than writing each job to the glory of my Savior I am constantly needing a pat on the back to think I’m any good at writing. Jesus puts it bluntly. “Right living, wrong audience=no reward from God” Wow, there is no qualifier there. It doesn’t say that we receive less of a reward, it says “no’” reward. Why?

At the heart of hypocrisy is people pleasing. If I am doing things of God, but looking for man’s approval I will never be satisfied. I will have no reward in heaven because I am not concerned about heavenly things. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I will never measure up to the expectations of others, because none of us do! So why look for man’s approval, when that approval will always fall short of God’s? What can man give me that God cannot?

If only God were more public with his praise of us! But, instead Jesus tells us, He rewards in secret. (vs. 18) We are looking for immediate gratification; I want to see that what I am investing in is worthwhile, producing results, and having lasting effect.

Satisfaction with God’s approval alone. It is only when I seek my Heavenly Father first that all of these other things are added to me. Lord, I praise you for making me a writer. As I live a public witness through written word, may I seek your will in the quiet place that is just between you and I. Remove all hypocrisy from my life, writing, speech, and actions. Amen

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What’s in a Name?

Posted May 8, 2015 | Karisa Moore

Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

“Does God change our name in heaven?”, was a question asked last night during bible-study. This really got me thinking. Our name is written in the book of life, but what if the name isn’t our earthly name? What if it is the name God has given to us–a reflection of his love and delight in us?

I am convinced that names matter to God, just look how many he has. Immanuel (God with us), Adonai (Lord/Master), and El Emunah (God of Mercy) are just a few. God also changed the name of his chosen throughout scripture: Abram-Abraham, Jacob-Israel, Simon-Peter, Saul-Paul. Why? Because, these new names more accurately describe the character of the person and God’s active presence in their lives. God has a purpose for each of us, and I sure would like to be fulfilling his name for me on earth. Concerning Revelation 2:17, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary states:

The new name is the name of adoption; when the Holy Spirit shows his own work in the believer’s soul, this new name and its real import are understood by him.

Beloved, you may have a name that does not accurately depict who God created you to be. We get a new name, reflecting his fingerprint on our lives and the depth of its meaning is just between us and our heavenly Father. How cool is that!

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